Thursday, November 19, 2015

Will the India-Pakistan series happen in December?

In December this year the India-Pakistan cricket series is planned to take place, but the tension between the rival countries has put a spanner in the works. Now it remains to be seen if a decision on where the series will be played can be reached within a month, or if the whole event will have to be called off.


The past couple of months the planned bilateral series has run into some trouble due to political tensions between the two competing countries. The main issue is where the series will take place, where ‘Hindustan’ opposes to play anywhere but in India even though it is Pakistan’s turn to host the series. The Indian Cricket board BCCI claims they:

·         Cannot play in Pakistan for safety reasons and threat of terror attacks;
·         Nor can they play on neutral ground in UAE (for reasons yet unknown).

Pakistan, who’s hosting the event, is reluctant to play a third home series on away ground. They already did in 2007 and 2012 on Indian soil. The Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Shahryar Khan was quoted saying “It is our series and we will play at our home venue, which is the UAE."

India has yet not responded to why they can’t play in the UAE, but the BCCI president Shashank Manohar made a clear statement in an interview with The Hindu that they are committed to playing Pakistan in December. He continued: “since it's not possible to play them in Pakistan or the UAE, we have to look at playing the series in Northern India in December."

With India’s cricket legacy and political power, you’re better off wasting your money on online bingo than betting on this series to be played anywhere else but in India.

The controversial matter has now gone up all the way to Indian government level, where BCCI awaits advice on what to do. Whether or not the cricket boards of both countries will reach an agreement is still uncertain. All the while Pakistan has made their stance clear, they won’t host on away soil. Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Shaharyar Khan also revealed that Pakistan will boycott the World Twenty20 in India next year if the December series doesn’t go through.

The eloquent brawl between the arch rivals continues and the future of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by both as of last year, could be in the danger zone.

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